This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Our long-range goal is to reveal structural transformations and cellular communication that characterize contact of the calycigenic growth cone with its target and the early stages of synapse assembly and stabilization at large nerve terminals in the auditory brainstem. Our central hypothesis is that competition among calycigenic inputs precedes expansion of the terminal over the cell body to form a calyx.